


Maybe Time Would Not Erase Us

by fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat



Series: The Phantom Chronicles [7]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV), The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Julie will do anything to save them, Luke and Julie are so in love and I think that's beautiful, M/M, Nick is the essential Herondale every group needs, Reggie is a genius with runes, Shadowhunter AU, or are they?, the guys are not ghosts, the werewolves really do like Alex, we need more friendship scenes between Julie and Alex and Julie and Reggie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28714746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat/pseuds/fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat
Summary: Herondales could see ghosts, that was a well known fact.It still didn't explain though why Julie, a Rosales, was the only one who could see her three very much alive, as they kept insisting, friends.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina, Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Nick & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters & Willie & Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: The Phantom Chronicles [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079396
Comments: 11
Kudos: 65





	Maybe Time Would Not Erase Us

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! For anyone who hasn't read the previous stories in this series, I mention a lot of incidents that have already happened, but this can be read as a stand alone, everything is explained!  
> Enjoy :D

Julie woke up alone. She was a bit confused, Luke and her usually found their way in each others' rooms when one of them had a later patrol. That had resulted in Luke actually sleeping in his room more, or well on an actual _bed_ more, and Alex had wiped a fake tear away when he'd first heard it. Julie didn't think much of it, maybe the boys had come in later than expected and fallen asleep. There was no way she was expecting Luke to wake up before ten anyway.

She got up, getting ready and going downstairs to the kitchen, hoping someone else would already be awake and making breakfast.

Only to be disappointed when she was the first one there. She lazily moved over to the fridge and started taking things out, following the rule, whoever gets up first, starts making breakfast for everyone. Life is hard. Not to say it was the first time in the seven months she'd been there that she had to make breakfast, but it was still nice to wake up and have a plate of bacon presented to you.

Deciding that she was going to go big today - maybe it was just the fact that she was hungry - she started making pancakes. Most of the Blackthorns were away on missions in other Institutes and were scheduled to come back in a few days, while Helen and Mark were in the Seelie and Unseelie Courts respectively, doing diplomatic work. Tavvy was back though with Rafe as they continued their training, the day of their parabatai ritual coming closer and with them had come Nick, who had taken the role of instructor for the younger kids back in the New York Institute. He was the same age as Julie and Flynn, but hadn't gone on a travel year since he'd stayed back to help, so Tavvy had offered to cut the year in half and go back to LA so he could at least gain part of the experience too.

Luke hadn't been what Julie would call excited when Flynn had joked around about Julie having a crush on Nick when they were younger, but Luke could barely hold grudges and all of that had dissipated after Nick had showed up a month ago and they actually liked each other. Julie knew it was dumb to begin with and so she'd joined Reggie and Alex in teasing Luke after the fact.

She had just poured the last of the mix in the pan when she heard noise behind her and turned around to see Luke, Alex and Reggie shuffling in the kitchen still looking half asleep and a bit disoriented. 

"Hey!" she greeted them with a smile. "What time did you come in last night? It was pretty late."

The guys all looked at each other as almost they were confused. "I'm not really sure," Alex eventually said as he sat down, the others following him.

"Are you guys okay?" Julie asked with a raised eyebrow. "You seem a bit out of it."

"Yeah... No, we're fine," Luke said as he grabbed a few plates and set them on the table.

"So, I shouldn't be worried that you're awake before ten?" Julie teased him, but Luke stopped mid handing a plate to Reggie and they all looked at each other again, confused.

"We _did_ sleep last night, right?" Reggie asked as if trying to remember.

"I... yeah? Yeah, I mean what else could we have done? I woke up in my room. I mean, I was in my room..." Alex trailed off trying to figure out why something didn't add up in his words.

"Okay, what happened to you last night?" Julie asked starting to get worried. They were just so... out of place.

"We..." Luke started, but stopped abruptly. "We went on patrol," he said slowly.

"Did we ever came back?" Reggie suddenly asked.

"Well, we're here..." Alex said as if that was a perfectly normal question to ask when they were indeed standing in front of Julie in the kitchen.

"Okay, maybe you should-" Julie started saying and reached for Luke's shoulder only for her hand to pass right through him.

So she did the only thing that made sense to her.

She screamed.

All three of them looked at her with wide eyes.

"What the fuck just happened?" Julie said looking in between all of them, her eyes coming back to Luke.

Reggie ever so carefully reached over and poked Luke's shoulder, apparently solid to him. Which meant all three of them were not solid to her? No, no, wait, that didn't make sense, they weren't really talking about-

"What happened?" came a shout from the doorway and Julie turned her head to see Flynn looking at her concerned and only slightly breathless. Did she run there?

"Something bad, something really, really bad, what happened last night?" Alex answered, turning to look at the guys only slightly panicking.

"Jules?" Flynn asked again looking at her. Only her. Wait...

"You can see them, right?" Julie asked still in a bit of a trance.

"See whom?" Flynn asked her eyes scanning over the rest of the kitchen not stopping at any of the guys.

"You can't..." Julie whispered with a gasp turning back to the boys, now terrified. "What happened last night?" she asked, her voice quieter. She wasn't sure it wouldn't break if she tried to raise it.

Luke made a move as if to... Hold her hand? Pull her in a hug? She couldn't tell because his hand stopped mid air, knowing it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Okay, no, no, let's just think about this, okay?" he said turning back to Alex and Reggie. "We're here, Julie can see us, we did come back last night!"

"You actually remember us coming back last night?" Alex asked almost hopeful that Luke would say _yes_ but his tone betrayed he already knew the answer.

"Okay, let's just sit down for a sec," Flynn said, coming inside towards Julie who looked as if she'd seen a- _Nope, not going there._ Luke was still a bit caught up in trying to remember and maybe not even following what exacly was going on that he didn't even realize Flynn had passed through him until she was standing in front of Julie. 

They all looked at Flynn with wide eyes, Luke rubbing a hand absent mindedly over his torso. "That did not feel right," he said.

"Why do you look like you've seen-" Flynn started to say, but Julie cut her off.

"No!" she said a bit louder than what she was going for. "Don't say that, everything's fine, we'll fix this, this is just... We'll fix it," Julie said shaking her head, trying to make sense of it.

"Are we-" Reggie looked at the guys, but Julie stopped him again.

"No," she said more firmly this time, as if forbidding them. "I can't see- No. You're fine. You're not allowed to be anything but fine."

"Who are you talking to?" Flynn asked looking around the kitchen, still not seeing the guys.

"I," Julie started to say... not exactly sure what when she didn't know what the hell was happening herself, but she had to say something, when Nick came in the kitchen in a completely cheerful and _wrong_ mood for the situation at hand.

"Hey, guys," he said and it took Julie a second to realize she wasn't just talking to her and Flynn because he was definitely looking _at_ Reggie and not _through_ him.

"You can see them too!" she said relieved. She wasn't going crazy, that was something.

"Uh... what?" Nick asked confused.

"The guys!" Julie pointed at the three of them.

"Shouldn't I?" he said, tilting his head.

"Did you hit your heads last night or something?" Flynn was now looking in between them.

"Okay, see? That's something!" Luke said, but Reggie and Alex didn't look as optimistic. Actually Alex looked seconds away from having a panic attack and Reggie looked like he hated himself for being about to burst Julie and Luke's bubble.

"Luke, he..." he started, hesitating about whether he should, but knowing he had to. "Nick is a Herondale."

Silence filled the room. Julie was terrified, the guys were still in shock, Nick wasn't one hundred percent sure what was going on and Flynn probably thought they were losing their minds. It was surprising really when Alex out of all of them was the one to break it.

"Okay, let's just think clearly for a second here, we can't actually be dead," he said looking at all of them. "And you know if I'm thinking clearly so can you, so let's just- This must make sense!"

"I mean, Alex has a point, I think I would remember it if I'd died," Reggie said moving one of the plates to his right to lean his arms on the table.

"Woah, okay, you're definitely not dead," Nick said.

"What do you mean?" Luke looked at him with hope in his eyes.

"You're touching stuff, ghosts don't have a corporeal form," he said.

"It still doesn't explain this," Luke said moving his hand through Flynn's arm who was still lost about what was going on. "Or that she can't see us. Or that Julie _can_ see us!"

"It will be explained if you remember what happened yesterday!" Julie said almost exasparated. They would figure this out, yeah, sure, okay, because nothing else really made sense here, did it? The guys weren't ghosts, they obviously weren't dead, no. She felt like she was going to throw up. Or cry. Is this what the beginning of a panic attack feels like?

"So, we're seeing ghosts?" Flynn said casually, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Since when can you see ghosts?" She turned to Julie curious.

"I can't see ghosts- They aren't ghosts! It's the guys!"

"The guys? Our guys? The phantoms are ghosts?" she asked making Reggie snort. Everyone turned to look at him.

"What? That was kinda funny," he defended himself.

"So, they're here?" she asked again, looking around.

"Yeah, you passed through Luke before," Julie said, suddenly getting tired.

"That's... Okay, sure, why not," Flynn decided to just go with it. "So, they're not ghosts, that's good, right? What did they do last night on patrol?"

"They don't remember."

"Look, I don't have much experience with ghosts, but this doesn't feel normal either," Nick said. "You have some of the qualities, but the fact that Julie can see you..."

"All Herondales can see ghosts, but all Shadowhunters who see ghosts aren't Herondales," Reggie offered.

"Yes, exactly, but Julie can't see any ghosts," Nick said sitting down on the other side of the table as well. "So, just..." He sighed frustrated. "I think I have good news and bad news."

"Oh, there _is_ good news? That's something," Alex said rubbing a hand over his forehead.

"What is it?" Luke asked, taking a step closer to the table and Julie. She just wanted to lean back into him, but that would mean falling on the floor. God, how could she just- They were right there! And her hand had just gone right through Luke.

"You're not dead," Nick started and Julie wished he would just leave it there, but that was the good news and they still had the other part to cover as well. "Wherever your bodies are though, I... I think you might be dying."

Silence filled the room once again. Julie was trying to process the whole situation, trying to figure out how any of this made sense. She'd just seen the guys yesterday, she'd woken up in Luke's arms, she'd cooked lunch with Alex, she'd sparred with Reggie and everyone was fine! They went on patrol and so did she with Flynn and Carrie with Nick and life was just normal. No one was dead, or half dead, or whatever the hell this was.

"I'll be right back," she said as she hastily got up and got out of the kitchen before anyonre could protest. She needed some air.

* * *

"Julie," she heard her name from where she'd sat on the ground leaning on the Institute's front door. She hadn't been gone more than five minutes and she was planning to go right back in because they needed to deal with this now, but she needed a second before she could just go with it.

She raised her head, vaguely aware that a few tears had escaped, but like, what was she supposed to do? Not be freaking out over the fact that her boyfriend and two of her best friends had suddenly become... not one hundred percent alive?

"No, don't cry," Luke said as he kneeled down next to her, almost moving in to get closer, but eventually deciding against it. Julie couldn't really imagine what that must feel like to Luke who was of the mindset 'hug first, ask questions later'.

"This is insane," she said, her hand on the ground close to Luke's but still a few inches away. This was wrong. And Julie would be damned if she didn't do everything in her power to fix it. "But you'll be okay."

"That's the goal, yeah," Luke said a bit hesitant, but Julie held a finger up.

"No, what I mean is that none of you three is allowed to die, so I'm not letting you," she said even slightly surprised at herself at how confident she felt about it. Because yeah, she realized it was a given. There was no universe in which she just let them die. "Yeah, okay, I feel better now."

"See? We've evolved to giving yourself your own pep talks," Luke said with a smile. At least the important things hadn't changed, he was still... him.

"Are _you_ okay?" Julie asked him. 

"Physically? If your hand hadn't passed through me I wouldn't even know there was something wrong," he said trying to keep things light hearted, but it was obvious this affected him more than he let on.

"Luke," Julie said, giving him a soft smile, her hand moving closer to his, but still not daring to try and touch it.

"Yeah, I know," he said with a sigh, hanging his head slightly. "But if anyone's going to figure it out it will be you and the guys, I know that much. Also, not being able to touch you is causing me physical pain, so that should be our first concern."

"Our first concern is that you stay alive," Julie said.

"I mean, yes, obviously that too, but also your hair is so nice and soft," he said with a pout making Julie chuckle, but she eventually looked at him wistfully.

"I'm here," he said, noticing her expression.

"I know, I know, but..." she trailed off looking at their hands. So close, but somehow so far apart. Maybe Luke had a point about the 'physical pain' part.

She breathed out. "At least I can actually see you. Guess I'm special like that," she said with a faint smile.

Luke huffed. "I could have told you that seven months ago."

"You did. Repeatedly."

"Well, can you blame me?" His face stretched into a grin again. Julie couldn't help but smile back. This was what she needed, Luke's infectious cheerful personality.

"I'll find you," she said, her hand moving to hover over Luke's. It was better than nothing.

"I know," he said looking back at her, having blind faith on Julie as always.

She took a second to gather her thoughts again. "Come on," she said as she got up and they went back inside.

* * *

"So, the guys are here, but we can't see them because they're not actually here, but Nick can see them because he's a Herondale and Julie can also see them because even though she can't see ghosts, the guys are not dead and maybe Julie probably has some connection to the other side but not as strong to see actual dead people?" Carrie asked looking at everyone around the room. "Did I get that right?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Julie said with a nod.

"Okay," Carrie sighed, closing her eyes for a second. "Okay, where did they go after the bar?"

"The bar?" Alex asked confused. Julie wasn't sure he wasn't freaking out anymore, but he was at least focused on finding out what was happening.

"The bar!" Julie shouted. "Yes, you texted you were going to the bar first, you don't remember any of that?"

The guys looked at each other hoping that at least one of them would know something more. "I remember leaving the Institute," Reggie said, "and then just being in my room this morning."

"Willie must remember something more, I mean there's no other reason we would go over at the bar, is there?" Luke said looking at Alex.

"I mean, I guess? No other werewolf has our phone numbers," Alex said just as lost as they were.

"Okay, so we're going at the bar," Julie said and got up. "Wait, it’s 10 am, will they even be open?"

"Yeah, they’re closed," Alex said. "I mean they’re closed, but Willie's gonna be there, they’re renovating."

"What's happening now?" Flynn asked having missed most of the conversation.

"I'm going to find Willie and you should just try and retrace their steps from last night. We know where they were supposed to go, maybe you'll find something," Julie said.

"I'll come with you," Alex said, looking at Julie.

"Is that a good idea?" Luke asked and Julie couldn't help but agree. It was one thing not being able to touch Luke, but at least she could see him, she could talk with him. Willie wouldn't be able to see or hear Alex and that couldn't be pleasant for either of them.

"Probably not, but I'm doing it anyway," Alex said. Luke turned to look at Julie who nodded at him. Of course she'd watch out for him.

"You guys should stick with Nick," she said.

"Yeah and we should get going, we don't know how much time we actually have," Nick said already up and moving towards the doorway.

Julie wasn’t eager to separate from Luke and Reggie, she felt as though if she let them out of her sight for longer than a couple of minutes, there was no guarantee she was gonna be able to see them again later. And no matter the sudden surge of confidence she was experiencing, that terrified her.

She was also aware that Nick was right, they didn’t know how much time they actually had and every second they wasted could be a second too many. Not wanting to put much thought into it or else she would lose her mind, she got in the car, Alex on the passenger seat - casually able to open the door, but not touch her or anyone else - and they left for the bar.

"So, how did _you_ sleep last night?" Alex asked after a couple minutes of silence where he just had an exasperated look, staring at the road ahead.

"Alex, you really don’t have to come with me," Julie tried to reassure him. "This cannot be easy. I mean I can see you and it’s still not easy."

"I know," he said with a sigh. "And this is not a phone call, but I’m getting the feeling it’s worse so if I’m there maybe it’s just a tiny bit better."

"You lost me," Julie looked at him back from the road confused.

"Yeah, uhm, remember about a month ago? That night Willie was shot?"

Julie nodded as she turned to look back to the street, probably going way over the speed limit. She’d like to see someone try and stop her.

"It was a weird night and I really wasn’t expecting... well any of it. And it’s different with us, I mean I know that. It’s a given that as a Shadowhunter you’ll have to go out there and put yourself in danger, you can’t escape it, but for Willie it wasn’t, you know?" He sighed as he looked out the window. "He told me that night that sometimes he’s scared his phone is gonna ring and it will be one of you delivering bad news. And well, I love your optimism, but this definitely doesn’t look good..."

Julie didn’t know what to say because she could understand exactly what Alex meant. She knew the people she cared about were constantly in some kind of dangerous situation and it was only a matter of time before Carlos started getting a few real missions of his own too. It was an inevitability she'd learned to live with. After her mom’s death it was easier for her mind to run wild and go to the worst case scenario every time someone she loved was out there or every time her phone rang and her dad or Flynn wasn’t there, but things had slowly gotten better.

Sometimes bad things happened and they were painful and awful, but that wasn’t the norm either.

And yeah, maybe Julie knew that a situation could get bad and prove fatal, but she had faith in the people she loved. She knew Alex understood that, they’d lost one of their best friends on the field and they’d grieved, but they hadn’t stopped going out there, they weren’t scared every time the phone rang that something had gone terribly wrong. If anything they all had each other’s back.

Willie though was in a different situation. He knew what Alex did in his spare time - or well in his every day life - but he wasn’t there. And yes, Julie knew he’d seen him fight and he’d helped them out a couple of times, but for them slicing a demon or two on a semi daily basis was routine. For Willie it was a constant reminder that Alex could be at the wrong side of things at any second.

And Julie was heading over to tell him exactly that.

Being a Shadowhunter though wasn’t just about putting herself in dangerous situations and knowing her friends and family did too. It also meant that she had the skills needed to save them. And if Julie knew one thing, it was that none of these three boys was dying today.

"Alex, do we agree that I have more common sense than the rest of my bandmates?" she asked him.

"Definitely," Alex said.

"Great, so when I’m telling you that you’re forbidden from dying you must know I have a point."

"I don’t think that’s how it works-"

"No, I’m pretty sure it is," Julie said casually as she took a sharp turn, ignoring the honks from the other cars around her.

"I’m torn between optimism and telling you you’re wrong and both feel weird right now..." Alex said.

"You wouldn’t tell me I’m wrong..." Julie said.

"Yeah, that definitely feels wrong- are you trying to kill us?!" he shouted as Julie changed in between lanes a little less carefully. "I trust you can save us from this," he said gesturing to himself, "but your driving right now is causing me anxiety."

"Alex, sweetie, people calling you instead of texting causes you anxiety. The bar is not set very high."

"That’s a fair point," he conceded, "but I mean who does tha- Careful!" he shouted again when Julie came to a halt at a red light.

"I’m trying to turn a twenty minute ride into like eight, so bear with me," she said focusing on the light and taking off the second it turned green.

"That..." Alex started to say, but eventually gave up. "Okay," he said quietly.

They made it to the bar at seven and a half minutes - Julie was very pleased at the fact. They didn’t waste any time, practically running inside, Julie getting ready for a conversation she really didn’t want to have.

The tables had been pushed to the side, tarps on the ground covered in dust and color and the walls bare, but on the process of being repainted. There were only a few people around, each of them working on something different, but they all turned around to face her when she bursted in through the door. She couldn’t see Willie anywhere.

"Uhm, hi, you’re a friend of Alex's right?" One of them came closer to her with a smile. He looked younger than the rest.

"That's Seth," Alex said from beside her.

"Yeah, I am," Julie said with a smile, trying to sound normal. "Seth, right? Is Willie here?"

He was about to answer something when more people from the pack started getting interested in their conversation.

"We weren’t expecting any Shadowhunters today," one of the guys said, borderline glaring at her. Julie really didn’t have time for this right now.

"I've never seen you around..." a girl said, leaning against the bar, equally as distrustful of her.

"Geez, people, relax, she’s Alex's friend," Seth said a bit louder for everyone to hear.

That was somehow enough to make them back off. Julie was surprised, not that they listened to him, the pack was well aware of Willie and Alex's relationship, they wouldn’t risk doing something bad, but their expressions actually softened.

"They like me," Alex said with a proud smile. Then again, maybe Julie shouldn’t be that surprised. Alex had talked to Alec so he could make sure the werewolves would be one hundred percent free from Caleb and no Shadowhunter could say anything. The ones who weren’t convinced then, probably changed their minds last month when him and Carrie made sure their Alpha didn’t die in a dirty alley and took him in the Institute. And it was also probably the fact that he helped gather all the so called 'werewolf hunters' and punched the guy who shot Willie in the face, breaking his nose, just before the memory wipe spell. These kind of things will make you likeable.

"Willie's inside," Seth said, pointing at the door in the back just as Willie came out holding a brush. His hair was up in a bun and he already had some paint on his clothes, but to be honest it kind of suited him. She felt Alex stiffen beside her and almost reached for his hand fo squeeze when she remembered.

"Julie!" Willie greeted her surprised, but with a smile nonetheless. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you," she said, wasting no time with pleasantries.

"Yeah, okay, sure," he said with a nod, gesturing for her to follow him back inside. She went in, holding the door for a couple more seconds so Alex could follow her.

"Did you call Alex last night? Did him and the guys come over?" she asked.

"I, yeah, didn’t he... Shit, wait, what happened? Where are they?" Willie asked realizing what was going on.

"Fuck..." Alex said with a sigh walking around the room, a hand going over his face.

"We don’t... know yet," Julie said, "but we need to move fast. Why did you call them over?"

"Wait, wait, what do you mean you don’t know? Alex texted me that everything was fine and they were going back to the Institute," Willie said, his eyes frantic.

"I did?" Alex stopped and came back beside Julie.

"Why were they here?" Julie asked again.

"I... We were closing up a bit earlier, we were pretty much empty and realized something was wrong. We don’t get many demons in the area, but the smell of sulfur was a dead giveaway and if I hadn’t called Alex he’d kill me," he said.

"Very true," Alex pointed out with a smile that turned very sad very fast.

"It was just a couple of demons, nothing too serious, but they said they were gonna follow after them, make sure there weren’t any more," Willie added.

"How long after they left did Alex text you?" Julie asked.

"Just like... fifteen minutes? It doesn’t-" he cut himself off, clearly not wanting to continue, his eyes terrified at the thought. "Julie, if no one has seen them since last night-"

"We know they’re alive," Julie hurried to say.

"How?" he asked, a glimmer of hope in his voice.

"I... can see them?" Julie said, almost unsure.

"What?" Willie was back to being confused.

"You know how some Shadowhunters can see ghosts? I can apparently see the in between part," Julie tried to explain. "They’re not dead, but-"

"They must be dying," Willie sounded defeated. "They’ve been MIA for the past nine hours! What could- How are they still..." he didn’t finish the sentence. Julie didn't want him to finish the sentence either.

"What if it was a demon?" Alex suddenly said.

"What do you mean?" Julie asked all pretenses of being alone dropped.

"Some kind of poison? Maybe we thought we were through, I texted Willie and then something came up and we didn’t make it in time. What if it’s something that kills you slowly?"

"Poison would explain the nine hour gap..." Julie said searching her mind for any kind of demon fitting the description.

"Uhm, Julie?" Willie looked at her, his eyebrows furrowing.

Her expression softened. "It’s Alex," she said quietly.

"Wait, he’s here?" Willie straightened up and looked around, his eyes going over Alex like he wasn’t even there.

"This is so fucked up," they both said at the same time. "Match made in heaven," Alex added with a small smile.

"You agree," Julie said. "He also says you’re a match made in heaven."

"Have you told him he’s not allowed to die?"

"Of course I did! To all of them!" Julie said.

"Why do we even have rules if we’re not following them?" Willie said with a sigh. "Also know that if you die I’m going to be extremely sad, so please just don’t," he added half light hearted, half serious, Alex moving to the general direction he was looking at.

"He's not," Julie said, "we're gonna find them, the others are already looking. You don’t remember any of this?" She turned to Alex in the end.

"I," Alex said with a gasp, closing his eyes and trying to concentrate. "We left the Institute. Reggie was saying something about a rune and then just... There are flashes of things, I don’t know. Something cold? Dark? It’s not really helping, for all I know that’s just me panicking."

"You have runes for this kind of stuff, right? Poisoning?" Willie asked.

"There are some things, mostly temporary. It usually requires a Silent Brother," Julie said not even having gone as far.

"So, you’ll find them and they still might not make it?" he asked, his voice dropping quiet.

Julie didn’t know how to answer that. And she didn’t because her answer would immediately be _of course they’ll make it_ , but she was scared. What if something went wrong? What if she’d been lying to herself all this time? What if-

 _No._ She wasn’t letting her boys just die.

"This _is_ fucked up," she said, "but we will make it."

"We adjust," Alex said quietly, taking a step closer, standing in front of him.

"We adjust," Julie repeated.

Willie breathed out a small laugh. "Did Alex say that?"

Julie nodded. Willie raised his head and for a second, Julie thought he could actually see Alex. He'd stood right where Willie was looking at, but they both seemed to feel it. "That’s one hell of an adjustment," he said.

Julie wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but it was obviously not her place to ask. "Okay, we need to call the others and we need to find out where you could have gone in fifteen minutes leaving here. It can’t be that far!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Willie said, shaking his head and moving towards the door, Julie and Alex following him. "We can-" he started to say when he noticed everyone had abandoned their jobs outside and had gathered closer to the door.

"Don’t get mad, but we might have heard everything and already called some of the pack for back up?" Seth said with a smile that read _please don’t say no._

Willie was speechless for a second, but quickly recovered. "Thank you," he said and started dividing them in the surrounding areas.

"That’s like, that’s really nice," Alex said looking at everyone.

"They really do like you," Julie said with a smile as she took out her phone and called Flynn.

"You found anything?" Flynn answered.

"They went somewhere close to the bar, fifteen minutes tops. The pack is already looking, make your way here," Julie said. "We think they might have been poisoned by a demon and it's taking them out slowly. Someone needs to contact the Silent Brothers and just be ready to passionately draw a bunch of runes on them."

"Shit, okay, we're coming over there," Flynn said and was about to hang up when Julie stopped her.

"Hey, before you go, hand your phone to Luke or Reggie for a sec," she added.

"Uhm, okay," she said and then her voice got a bit more distant when she added, "Julie wants to speak to a phantom." Julie couldn't resist the urge to roll her eyes. She was really just going ahead with that.

It took a couple of seconds, but she soon heard a new voice coming through. "Julie?" She'd literally never been more relieved to hear Luke talk.

"Hey, listen, do you remember _anything_ from the bar last night? There were a couple of demons, you went after them to make sure there weren't any more?"

"I..." he trailed off, probably looking at Reggie to see if he knew something more. "All I remember is leaving the Institute and then being in my room this morning."

"Not even a flash of anything? Even if it doesn't make sense. Alex said something about cold and dark, does that spark anything?" Julie pressed on.

"Cold and dark?" Luke said a bit confused, but the way he'd said it betrayed he was definitely thinking about it.

"Wait," she heard Reggie's voice closer, "I do remember cold, but it doesn't make sense. It was warm last night, Luke was going on about his sleeveless gear idea again - a terrible idea really."

"Hey!" Luke protested in the background.

"Maybe it wasn't actual cold? Maybe it was just panic? I mean it doesn't make sense," Reggie continued, ignoring him.

"No, I... I think I remember the cold," Luke said, "but also something..." He groaned frustrated trying to remember. "A witchlight?"

"Witchlight?" Julie repeated.

"Why would we need a witchlight if we had night vision runes?" Alex asked from beside her. "I mean it was late, but there's always some form of light around anyway."

He was right, Julie was thinking the exact same thing, unless... "Maybe there wasn't..." she said trying to figure out where she was going with it and where they could have ended up, when she suddenly heard a yelp from somewhere on the other side of the phone and then there was shuffling. "Hello?" she said.

"Nick said the phone slipped through Luke's fingers," Flynn now said.

"Wha-" Julie whispered and turned to look at Alex, scared.

"Alex, grab the brush from the bar," she said nodding at one of the discarded brushes on top of the counter. And sure, Alex hadn't heard what happened, but he could still read her expression and she definitely didn't look happy.

He reached for the brush tentatively, only for his hand to go through it and the counter, making him gasp. He took a step back and turned to look at Julie, probably mirroring her expression. "That's not good, is it?"

There was a part of Julie's brain that was trying to rationalize that she could still see him and Julie couldn't see ghosts so yes, he was very much not dead, but this morning they were touching stuff which made them at least fifty percent alive and this was tipping the scale in the wrong direction. They were slipping away.

"We need to hurry," was all she said.

* * *

"You can still see them, right?" Carrie asked Julie as soon as they were all reunited. 

"Yes," Julie answered, relieved herself that she could actually see both Luke and Reggie. "Come on, we don't have much time."

They didn't have any positive news from Willie and the rest of the pack yet, so they kept their distance from each other, trying to cover more ground, while still being close in case they were needed. Julie had stayed right next to the boys just in case somehing went wrong. Nothing would actually _go_ wrong, but just in case. They'd need to know.

"Just so you know," Julie said to Reggie next to her, while Luke and Alex were a few feet ahead, "we're texting each other about every little thing that happens on patrol from now on. Did you trip on the sidewalk? You let me know."

"I doubt you want to know how clumsy we are," Reggie said.

Julie made a noise between a chuckle and a groan. She just needed for this day to be over.

"Are you okay?" Reggie asked her. "Okay, probably a stupid question, but like, it's okay. There are so many people out looking. And in the right place for once. We'll get there in time."

"How are you so optimistic?" Julie turned to ask him knowing that she should probably be the one consoling him and not the other way round.

"I trust you guys with my life every day, today's no different," he said with a shrug. "Also you said we're not allowed to die and I'd hate myself if I disappointed you," he added making Julie smile.

"You could never disappoint me, Reg," she said softly. "Besides, we already have a plan to start our own band when Luke inevitably throw us out for playing country."

"I don't think anyone can throw you out of a band with your literal name in it," Reggie said thoughtfully. "Also, Luke would give up music before throwing you out of the band."

"The boy just doesn't appreciate good music," she said making them both chuckle. "You know, I hadn't noticed how much we hug and hold hands with you three until now. It's impossible."

"Yeah, but I mean, you still have your eye contact thing with Luke, that's something," Reggie offered with a smile.

"Our eye contact thing?" Julie asked amused.

"You know what I'm talking about! The way you just look at each other when you sing or literally just exist and it's pure chemistry," he said. "Alex and I first noticed it when we did that concert on the beach..." he trailed off and suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Julie asked coming back beside him.

"The beach... The beach!" he shouted, Luke and Alex stopping where they were too as Reggie ran to catch up with them, Julie behind him. "The beach! It makes sense now!" he said again. "The caves! Cold and dark? Too dark that would require a witchlight? The fucking caves!"

"Shit, okay, okay, it makes sense, it's the perfect place for a demon to nest and close enough for us to have gone over," Luke said. "It's still a big area to cover though, we don't know how far or deep we were. Shouldn't we have just waited for the demons to come out?"

"If they were nice enough to come out, sure," Alex said. "You remember that time I'd burnt out at the beach and ended up hating energy..." - his eyes suddenly went wide - "Oh fuck, okay, no, I know where we are!"

"You do?" Julie asked, her phone already out, texting everyone.

"Yeah, I don't remember what happened, but I definitely just remembered saying 'this is where my hate for energy runes was born'," Alex said, his words almost overlapping with each other. "I know where we are!"

"Tell me exactly what to write," Julie said, her voice urgent.

And then they were running again. Julie had glamoured herself, but she still had to be careful not to bump into every person on the street - because it was still 10:30 am, they didn't have the luxury of being left alone - and was soon enough running across the sand coming to a stop in front of the rocks. She was quickly joined by everyone else, but Alex stopped her before they could go in.

"You can't take Willie or the rest of the pack with you. This is most likely poison and you can't fix a werewolf with runes."

"He's right," Nick said and turned to Willie. "You have to stay here."

"They _are_ staying here," Willie said pointing to the people next to him. "I'm coming with you."

"Dude, we're not going to save the guys just to have you die," Flynn said. "We can't fix you with a stele."

Willie obviously wanted to argue, but above all he realized that there was no time to waste. "If you're not back in ten minutes, I'm barging in," he said.

"Deal," Julie said and they all moved into the cave complex just to their side.

In a sense, they were lucky it was early because they didn't have a witchlight to help out. The night vision runes were working well enough, but Nick had activated a serpah blade too just in case. Flynn had taken out two knives next to her, ready for whatever could come at them at any second, same with Carrie. Julie let her whip unravel on her hand slowly as she looked around for any sign of the guys.

"Please tell me this is refreshing your memory," Nick said as they went further in.

"Well, no, but how much further could we have gone?" Reggie said.

"It depends on how fast we-" Luke started to say when he disappeared completely and flickered back into Julie's sight talking like nothing had happened. 

"Luke!" she shouted before she could stop herself. Nick hadn't said anything, he was obviously still visible to him.

"What's wrong?" Luke turned to her concerned. About her, not himself.

"You flickered," she said. "I-If I can't see you, but Nick still can..."

"No, we did not get this far for this to end badly," Carrie said firmly and carried on further inside. Julie couldn't help but agree, no matter the slight tremor in her hands. She decided to push it down and gripped her whip tighter, steadying herself. They'd gotten this far.

The further inside they got, the temperature dropped, explaining the cold part all the boys had described. It wasn't until the light from outside had completely disappeared when they heard it. It was a faint sound that steadily got louder as they got closer, but it wasn't the piercing wail Julie would have have expected from a demon.

Nick moved the seraph blade further away from himself, shining light ahead of them. Julie didn't know whether to be shocked, scared or impressed. Maybe a bit of everything?

"Careful of the tail!" Luke shouted bringing her abruptly back to reality and they all moved away just in time to avoid said tail that extended towards them.

There was a demon lying in front of them, still very much alive, but unable to move its body. It wasn't very big and if anything didn't look as threatening, but considering it'd caused this whole chaos, Julie was ready to kill it. There were a couple of arrows on each of its sides, wounding it but still not having completely killed it, while it was mainly kept in place by one of Alex's kindjals that was going through its body and apparently the sand and dirt under it. Everything was Marked, making the creature unable to just pass through, but it was somehow still alive, its tail free and moving around wildly.

"Guys, go find your bodies," Carrie said without taking her eyes off the creature, switching to a seraph blade too.

"We can't just-" Alex started to argue, but was cut off by Julie.

"You can't do anything to help here," she said, "it's almost dead anyway, you already did most of the work. Help us by finding yourselves."

The guys didn't look as comfortable leaving them alone, but there wasn't anything they could do just by standing there. They quickly ran to the demon's other side, not affected by anything happening around them. Julie didn't know how to feel about that.

"I'll hold the tail back, you go and stab it," Julie said. It had a few spikes here and there, the probable cause of the poisoning. The fact that the guys had managed to stop it and then got hit, wasn't exactly promising.

The others nodded, Julie gripping her whip tightly and lashed it forward, letting it wrap around the tail. Just as she pulled back though it slipped right through making her stumble.

"What the hell? It's slimy, it's doesn't hold," she said.

"Can't you weave it through the spikes for support?" Carrie asked as they spreaded out trying to avoid getting hit.

"They're not strong enough, they won't hold," Nick shouted, moving to his left, only narrowly missing the tail.

"I can try something," Flynn said, "but it will get worse before it gets better."

"We need to hurry, whatever it is just go for it!" Julie shouted. She noticed Flynn nodding as she took out more knives from her pockets.

"Use these," she shouted just as she flung one of them towards the moving tail.

The second it hit it, it recoiled, but quickly came back moving even sloppier than before. Flynn took a second to concentrate between each throw, missing the third one as the creature flailed. She tried again, having eventually embeded four knives in the tail closer to the end working for Julie to hold the whip in place.

Just as the last knife found its target, Julie lashed her whip forward again, wrapping it around the knives and pulling back forcefully. She could feel it slipping through again, but it would stand for a couple of seconds.

Carrie and Nick wasted no time running forward just as Julie's grip wavered under the creature's strength. She held back for as long as she could, Nick jumping over to its other side to avoid getting knocked down and they both burried their seraph blades into its torso the second he landed. The demon burst into flames, leaving all the weapons that had pierced through it to clatter on the floor. Julie brought her whip back and they all wasted no second running to the guys.

They weren't standing much further away, all three of them hovering over their bodies. Julie didn't know whether to be relieved they'd found them or terrified because this was going to be the hard part.

They all fell on the ground right next to them, steles on hand.

"Okay, start with the mendelin rune, that should be enough to give us a boost to- okay?" Reggie started, guiding them on how to help them. Nick was translating for Carrie and Flynn, but Julie had also missed a part in the end just as Reggie flickered like Luke had before him. She wasn't going to think about that now.

She opened up Luke's gear, drawing the mendelin rune right over his chest. She placed a hand on the side of his neck, feeling for his pulse. She tried, she really did try to not freak out when she couldn't feel anything because Luke's ghost or soul ot whatever he was, was right _there_ , she could see him, but it wasn't working!

"Poisoning usually affects directly the bloodstream, throw a-" Reggie said again, but Julie again missed the whole last part.

"What?" she lifted her head, her voice sounding exasparated and almost broken. She didn't care. They didn't have time.

"Amissio," Alex filled the blank. She knew her runes, she really did, but she couldn't concentrate on anything right now, the drawings happening based on pure muscle memory. If she let the stele down, her hand would be heavily shaking.

She _still_ couldn't feel Luke's pulse.

"This is-" she started to say as she looked up just to see Alex disappear into thin air. She gasped in horror, her body going numb for a second until Carrie breathed out next to her.

"There you are," she said, her hand on Alex's neck.

Julie looked back at Nick, who nodded reassuringly. "I can't see him either," he said. Okay, that was good, this was working.

"The pulse is faint, but it's there," Carrie said. "Silent Brothers are already on their way to the Institute."

"I'll go get Willie to help us get them out," Flynn said as she got up and ran the same way they'd come through.

"Come on, Luke," Julie whispered under her breath as she watched the runes settle.

"Julie," Luke started to say on her other side.

"No," she stopped him, "don't you dare say anything that even resembles a goodbye speech because I'll get furious and I don't need to be furious right now."

"Try an a-" Reggie was about to say when he disappeared too. She turned to Nick, seeing him close his eyes in relief.

_Try a what?_

Julie looked back at Luke who was still not responding to any of the runes in front of her. He'd already started flickering before, she couldn't have that much time until there was no coming back.

Reggie had been about to say something and if Julie could just will her mind to stop panicking and actually work, she could figure out what that was. They'd tried the mendelin, the amissio, the iratze didn't matter here, it wasn't going to work-

"Julie," she heard Luke's voice beside her again, quieter this time, almost resigned. She turned around to find him looking at her with an expression she couldn't really define. It was sad, but it was also loving. Luke had never looked at her with anything but love, maybe even before they'd actually started dating. He still trusted her, still had faith in her even when she was standing over his body having no idea what to actually do.

"It's okay," he said which came as a slap across her face, actually waking up and clearing the haze in her mind. Because this? This was very much _not_ okay.

"Luke," she said looking straight into his eyes, trying to convey the message as clearly as possible, "I am not letting you fucking die." Why was this so hard to believe? No, she could either focus and make this work, or spend the next few seconds in agony and-

Wait.

_Agony._

"Agony!" she shouted, her own eureka moment. That was what Reggie had been about to say before, the agony rune!

She closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. She had one shot at this and it had to work. 

She focused on Luke in front of her. Luke, who had gaped at her the first time he'd heard her sing and kept telling her how talented she was. Luke, who had shared his passion for music with her and had reminded her how much she loved it too. Luke, who'd been the first person after she'd lost her mom that sat beside her on that piano bench and played his songs with her. Who smiled at her every time he saw her and brightened the whole room around him. Who had that infectious personality that sometimes was enough to pull Julie out of her head during a bad day. Who had finished her love song about him and they'd decided to share. Who loved her so much and didn't fail to remind her every chance he got. 

Luke, whom he loved more than anything.

She breathed out, opening her eyes and pouring all of that into the agony rune. It was taking more out of her, but she didn't care, that was exactly her goal.

She watched as the black Mark formed against Luke's skin and waited, the beating of her heart the only sound she could hear as she waited for that faint pulse.

_One second._

_Two seconds._

_Three sec-_

_Beat._

Julie sobbed, her eyes watering, but she didn't cry. She turned to her side, making sure she wasn't just imagining this, seeing Luke had disappeared. Nick didn't seem terrified either and that was enough for her to close her eyes in relief as she hung her head.

He was okay. They were all okay.

She could _breathe_ again.

* * *

"You're okay?" Willie asked her.

"Just... tired," Julie said with a sigh as she leaned back on Willie's shoulder, on the little couch they were sitting on. "I didn't sleep well last night."

"Yeah, I get that," he said, bringing a hand to go through her hair.

"Does one of us have to almost die so we can all get a couple of days off?" Flynn asked from where she lied against Carrie in one of the infirmary beds they'd decided to occupy.

"No..." Carrie said nodding at the three unconscious boys on the other side of the room. "Three of us do."

"Also, you and I are scheduled to go on patrol tomorrow night," Julie told Flynn.

"And I carry on with Tavvy and Rafe's training tomorrow as planned," Nick said from a chair next to Julie.

"You want me to pretend I broke my arm or something?" Flynn asked Julie. "I'd do that for you, you know. I'm a great friend like that."

"Thank you, Flynn, the sacrifices you make for me are unparalleled," Julie said rolling her eyes amused. She loved that girl.

"Do we know when they’re gonna wake up?" Willie asked looking over at the boys.

"It's not really an exact science..." Carrie said. "Even when they do, they’ll probably fall right back asleep. I guess poison and wandering around in half ghost form really does a number on you."

"Nick, you’re the ghost expert," Flynn said.

"Flynn, I’ve been telling you for years, I’ve seen like two ghosts my entire lifetime. It’s not like they stroll around waiting to be seen. I’m guessing they have more important things to do," Nick said.

"Yeah well, it was nice having you around. You really came through for us yesterday, thank you," Julie said with a smile. If he hadn't been there to reassure her that he couldn't see the guys either after they'd disappeared, she would have lost it.

"I'm glad to be the essential Herondale every group needs," he said with a smile.

"All we're missing is a Fairchild, really and then we can-" Flynn started to say when they heard shuffling from the other side of the room.

They turned around to see Alex slowly stirring awake. Willie had gotten up and over by his bed in the blink of an eye, Julie having to grab the back of the couch to balance herself. It wasn't like she could blame the guy. The aisle between the beds wasn't very wide, they could still see the guys clearly from where they stood and they really didn't want to overcrowd them the second they were awake. Then again they'd drew so many iratzes on them, Julie wasn't so sure they'd be conscious enough for whatever they did to matter.

Willie moved a few strands of hair away from Alex's face just as he opened his eyes. "Hey, baby," he said.

"Willie?" Alex asked confused as he blinked up at him, his voice tired and hoarse from sleep.

"Do a lot of people call you baby?" Willie asked with a smirk.

Alex looked at him for a second. "What?" he asked confused.

"Okay, let's refrain from the hard questions until they're not hopped up in iratzes," Carrie said with a smile.

Alex turned around at her voice and noticed everyone else sitting only a few feet away.

"Hi," Flynn said with a little wave.

If Alex hadn't called Willie by name, Julie would be pretty sure he had no idea who they were. He eventually raised his hand slightly, waving back at her. He turned his head to his right to see Reggie and Luke still asleep on the beds beside him. "Were we- ghosts?" Alex asked, confused at his own words.

"Yes," Flynn said at the same time Julie said "no" and Nick said "kinda".

"Guys," Alex said, one hand sluggishly moving to rub his temple, "what?"

"Okay, look," Julie said as she got up too and stood by the foot of his bed, "were you dead? No. Were you semi-corporeal entities that haunted our kitchen? Sure. Am I going to head slap you the minute you feel better for doing this to me? Absolutely."

Alex stared at her, letting her words process. "Okay," he eventually said. He waited for a few seconds, his eyes clearing out the more he was awake and then added, "I haunted the bar too, you don't see Willie complaining."

"That's because he's in love with you and that has blinded him to the truth," Julie deadpaned.

"It's true, I am," Willie agreed with a nod, "and you'd be welcomed to haunt the bar whenever you wanted."

"Thanks," Alex said with a faint smile, his hand finding Willie's on the edge of the bed and intertwining their fingers together.

"I think a band with actual ghosts would be really cool," they heard a new equally as tired voice and Julie's head snapped to the side to find Reggie blinking sleepily at them too.

"Yes, Reggie knows what's up," Flynn said, moving to sit on the food of the bed her and Carrie were on. "Giving a whole new meaning to Julie _and the Phantoms_."

"Right?" Reggie agreed with a smile.

"I can't see actual ghosts, people!" Julie said, moving to stand in between Alex's and Reggie's beds. "You can go form Nick and the Phantoms instead."

"I barely have time to sit down, I can’t be in a band," Nick said. "And I really doubt I can match your voice."

"We would find a way for Julie to see us, we would make it work," Reggie said moving his hand in dismissal, sounding just the tiniest bit drunk. Julie held back a chuckle.

"Yes, Julie, get with the program," Alex said moving his hand that was holding Willie's around.

"Are they delirious because of the painkilling - or whatever - runes?" Willie asked.

"Sure, let’s just save everyone the embarrassment and go with that," Julie said even though it was kind of true.

"What? Hey! I’m a responsible adult," Alex said.

"He really is, he’s convinced Luke to go to sleep before 5 am," Reggie said not the least bit sarcastic. "That’s like, wow."

"So wow," Carrie said with a chuckle, making the sober people in the room laugh too.

Julie was happy, she really was, but she couldn’t help but falter when she looked at Luke. Alex and Reggie were awake, or well, whatever this was called, they were responsive, they were fine. Why wasn’t Luke awake too?

She shook her head trying not to think like that. The runes had worked, he’d be fine, Carrie had been right before, this wasn’t an exact science and if anything, the guys were half asleep already too. She could wait a little while longer.

And so she did.

_One day._

_Two days._

_Three days._

She couldn’t help but walk into the infirmary the third night, her eyes already red-rimmed. Alex and Reggie were getting better, they still couldn’t really move around, but the runes were helping with their constitution and they were getting stronger. They weren’t in pain anymore, the iratzes had done their work, but the poison had left them behind weak and tired. The guys' sleep schedule had been destroyed, but they could at least stay awake for a few hours at a time. They were working through this.

So what the hell was going on with Luke?

She closed the door behind her quietly, noticing that all three of them were sleeping. It was late, but she couldn’t find it in herself to fall asleep. She hadn’t been sleeping well these past few days. She’d give anything to just be with Luke in the music room right now, fussing over a melody that wasn’t going anywhere or a lyric that just couldn’t rhyme. 

She took a seat on the bed next to Luke, her hand finding his. Having her hand pass through him that day had startled her, Luke was right there in front of her and yet it felt like he was miles away. She thought it couldn't get worse than that. But right now? Actually able to hold Luke’s hand and getting no response? Able to feel him because yes, he was right _there_ , but somehow still feeling like they were miles away?

She sobbed. This felt worse.

Maybe this was her fault, maybe her runes hadn’t been good enough. It had taken more to bring back Luke anyway, he’d been the first one who'd started flickering, maybe Julie didn’t give it all she had, maybe she’d been too late or too weak or too-

"Julie?" she heard Reggie's voice on her right. She was fully aware she was outright crying and sobbing when she’d tried to be quiet for the guys' sake, but she couldn’t help it anymore.

Reggie made room for her on his bed and she all but flung herself at him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as she cried against his chest, his hand going through her hair.

"It’s okay," he murmured, "he'll be okay."

"How do y-you know?" Julie managed to say in between sobs. She couldn't lose Luke, not after her mom, she really couldn’t.

"Because you saved him." He smiled down at her. "And maybe the Silent Brothers helped a little too after the fact," he added.

Julie almost smiled, but it fell as she let out another sob. "I-I don’t- maybe I did something wrong. You and Alex are fine."

"I wouldn’t call what we are _fine_ ," another voice came behind Reggie.

Reggie breathed a laugh as he maneuvered Julie so she was lying against him and they were both looking at Alex on the other side.

"Hi," Alex told her with a little wave.

Julie smiled through the tears as she waved back.

"I know it’s awful," Alex said with a sigh, "and believe me as the resident anxious person in this friend group I’ve taken it upon myself to freak out about it, but when it comes right down to it, I think it makes some kind of sense."

"What do you mean?" Julie asked.

Alex looked over her, presumably to where Reggie was. "We never really told you what exactly happened that day," Reggie said.

"You remember?" Julie asked surprised. She’d just kind of thought that the actual story had been lost after everything that went down.

"It all came back after we were like, conscious. _Really_ conscious," Alex said. " _If_ you want to hear about it. I know it’s still hard-"

"Yes! What happened?" Julie said eagerly.

"There were more demons in the cave," Reggie started, "it wasn’t anything crazy, we took care of it, but the seraph blades were out."

"And we really thought we were done because it was quiet," Alex continued, "so I texted Willie that it was fine. Then that other thing came out of nowhere and we were kind of trapped without a seraph blade and you know the witchlight can only do so much and you can’t really fight and hold a stone at the same time."

"The main problem was the tail, you saw how that thing moved, but we at least had to make sure the demon would stay still. I grabbed two arrows, Luke took another two, but they weren’t going to go deep enough to keep it in place, so after we stabbed it, Alex passed the dagger through it to the ground. They're not very big, but it worked to make it stand still," Reggie said, "but the tail was still a problem."

"It was dark - too dark - we weren’t exactly sure what it looked like, we’d barely even seen the spikes until one of it grazed Luke the minute he stabbed it. I'm pretty sure telling you and the guys to watch out for the tail was a reflex, he hadn't actually seen it yet," Alex said. "He was okay, so we didn’t think much of it, but the minute I passed the kindjal through it and moved back, Luke went down. In the seconds it took for Reggie and I to turn around and realize what happened, it lashed out again towards Reggie and it got me last. Now, I really don’t know how each poison works exactly, but I’m guessing even those couple of minutes made a difference."

Julie looked at him wanting to believe this. Maybe she should, if the Silent Brothers had given the okay, who was she to question things? But still-

"What if it was me?" she asked quietly. "Maybe I did something wrong with the runes-"

"I’m gonna stop you right there," Reggie said, his arms wrapping tighter around her, "you followed everything I said - even the things you didn’t hear - and if there’s one thing I know it’s runes. You did exactly what you were supposed to do."

"Reggie didn’t memorize the whole Gray Book for you to tell him the runes were wrong," Alex told her with a smile that made Julie breathe a chuckle too.

"It's not just about the drawing though," she said. "It’s about the person who does it, the emotion you put behind it and I-"

"Julie, if you say something along the lines of ‘I didn’t give it everything I had' I’m gonna actually stand up just so I can come over there and slap some sense in your head," Alex said. "And you wouldn’t do that to me because I’m pretty sure if I stand up on my own I’m gonna fall."

"I’ve heard Shadowhunters who were just passing by the Institute talk about how adorable you two are," Reggie said. "I don’t think your emotions are being questioned by anyone and they certainly shouldn't be by you. You two ooze chemistry."

"You should never say ooze again, but yeah, I agree," Alex said, his expression softening. "I know it’s easy to just spiral and get lost in your own head, believe me I do it constantly, but you know exactly how you feel about Luke. If anything I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why your runes worked even though he was in a worse position. I know it's scary, it’s terrifying really with every day that goes by, but you need to remember that even if it takes a little while longer, he’s going to be okay," he finished. Julie felt like that one last sentence didn’t just go out to her. She knew that even though he was trying to reassure her, this was working both ways. She’d been with them for a while now to know Alex was stressing out just as much about Luke, but if he needed to be the brave one he would assume the role and carry on. Maybe he just needed this as much as Julie did.

Reggie moved his head behind her, trying to get comfortable and failing. "Okay, Jules, I’m sorry, but like, how does Luke do this? You have so much hair."

Julie actually, genuinely laughed for the first time in a while. "He's never complained," she said.

"You’re kidding? He’s probably written at least three songs about Julie's hair," Alex said, rolling his eyes with a smile.

"He says it’s nice and soft," she said.

"It _is_ nice and soft," came a third and final whisper behind her and Reggie.

Julie's breath caught on her throat as her whole body froze. It took her a second to process what she’d heard, but Reggie had already moved his arm around so she could get free and get up. Just as that second passed, Julie had jumped off the bed and had to hold herself back to not grab Luke and pull him into a hug that was probably going to cause him more pain than necessary.

"Hey," he whispered with a small smile.

"Hey," Julie said too her voice breaking as she took his hand in hers again. And Luke was weak, but just having his fingers move against hers was enough to make something inside her feel right again.

"Why are you crying?" he asked her confused, giving her a worried look. Could this boy stop being worried about her and be worried about himself for once?

"Because it’s been three days!" she said. "These two have been awake for a while now!" she added pointing to the guys next to them. Luke turned his head to look at the guys who both just looked relieved and happy with the outcome of that night. Julie couldn’t help but lean in and kiss him softly, pulling back to rest her forehead against his without actually pushing Luke down. "You can never do this to me again," she told him. "I love you too much for that."

She felt a hand on the side of her face as Luke slowly pulled her back down and kissed her again. "I love you too," he said as he pulled back.

"And that goes for you too," Julie raised her voice again looking at all three of them. "I will not go through again what I did that day. You cannot show up as ghosts and expect me to be okay with it."

"I thought we weren’t ghosts," Reggie said.

"Well, we _were_ something," Alex said.

"Hey, Luke, wouldn’t it be cool to be in a band with ghosts?" Reggie asked him.

"No one would hear us?" Luke said slowly, as if trying to remember the right words, his eyes half opened.

"Okay, I’ve been thinking about it these past few days," Reggie said, "we get a warlock, they do a spell and bam! Julie can see us and people can hear us and it’s so simple, really."

"Let's keep that as a back up idea," Alex said.

Julie felt Luke's hand tugging her closer next to him. She looked back at him, still smiling - she really just couldn’t stop smiling. "I don’t want you to be uncomfortable."

"Great, me neither," he said tugging at her shirt again and Julie really needed this just as much, so she decided to go with it. She lied down, Luke's arm around her waist and his head probably in her hair. He didn’t complain. If anything she felt him relax against her. She caught his hand, intertwining their fingers together, finally relaxing too. It’d been too long.

"I missed you," she said quietly.

"I'm here," he whispered behind her and it was finally one hundred percent true.

The silence around the room had started getting to her, the exhaustion after all these days finally catching up with her. Her eyes slipped closed, squeezing Luke’s hand, making sure he was right there with her. She could finally calm down.

Okay, wait.

"How would it work if people could only hear and not see you?" she asked, her eyes opened again. She was really getting into this, wasn’t she?

"Well, I imagined if warlocks could just make ghosts visible there would be more of them going around," Reggie said, "I’m just trying to get a good deal."

"It would be like playback, not as cool," Luke said without moving.

"We could stay visible for the song and then go back to ghost mode for the rest of the day," Alex said.

"Do I get to see you anyway?" Julie asked.

"Yes, because you’re special," Luke said making her chuckle.

"Okay then, I guess if you had to be ghosts in some alternate universe and we somehow ended up knowing each other and forming a band, that would be a good enough deal," she said.

"Julie and the Phantoms would make more sense," Reggie said.

"Oh believe me, after what happened, the meaning has changed forever," Alex said.

Julie could feel Luke's hold on her hand loosening only so slightly as he started drifting off again. She smiled. Lying there, in Luke’s arms, just talking about crazy theories with the guys and slowly falling asleep... This was her life. And she loved it.


End file.
